Ki­na­han as­so­ci­ate charged with firearm of­fence

A Ir­ish man aged 51 who has been linked to the Ki­na­han gang will ap­pear in court in Bri­tain later this morn­ing fol­low­ing the ar­rests of two men as part of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion into the sup­ply of drugs and firearms both here and in the UK.

Dubliner Thomas Ka­vanagh, whose ad­dress was given by Bri­tain’s Na­tional Crime Agency as Tam­worth, had been ar­rested on his ar­rival at Birm­ing­ham Air­port on Satur­day.

The NCA said its of­fi­cers, sup­ported by mem­bers of An Garda Síochána and Stafford­shire Po­lice, con­ducted a num­ber of searches, in­clud­ing at a home in the Tam­worth area and a busi­ness premises in Birm­ing­ham.

They re­cov­ered a com­bi­na­tion torch and stun gun which is il­le­gal to own and pos­sess in Bri­tain.

Mr Ka­vanagh has now been charged with pos­ses­sion of a Sec­tion 5 firearm.

“Ka­vanagh was re­manded in cus­tody overnight and will ap­pear at North Stafford­shire Mag­is­trates court to­mor­row (Jan­uary 14),” an NCA state­ment said.

“A 20-year old man ar­rested along­side Ka­vanagh at Birm­ing­ham Air­port has been re­leased un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion. “A third man, aged 19, was also ar­rested and re­leased un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion.” Mr Ka­vanagh is a brother -in- law of Ki­na­han gang ‘lieu­tenant’ David Byrne, who was shot dead as he at­tended a pro­fes­sional box­ing weigh-in at the Re­gency Ho­tel in Dublin. The killing sparked a num­ber of mur­ders. Mr Ka­vanagh was pic­tured at Mr Byrne’s fu­neral.

Fol­low­ing Satur­day’s ar­rest the Garda press of­fice is­sued a state­ment in which it quoted As­sis­tant Com­mis­sioner John O’Driscoll (SCO) Spe­cial Crime Op­er­a­tions as say­ing: “For the pur­pose of tack­ling or­gan­ised crime groups An Garda Síochána has com­menced the new year in the man­ner in which it in­tends to pro­ceed in 2019, by en­gag­ing in the most im­pact­ful pos­si­ble co­op­er­a­tion with law en­force­ment au­thor­i­ties at an in­ter­na­tional level.

“In this re­gard the UK Na­tional Crime Agency is one of our most im­por­tant al­lies, with whom we share a com­mon de­sire to put or­gan­ised crime groups who op­er­ate within the com­mon travel area out of busi­ness.”